Some people write positive reviews to reinforce their purchase decision. It helps justify why it was a good idea to spend their money on something.
Ask HN: What motivates users to write Amazon reviews?
31–40 of 50 posts
Re: Ask HN: What motivates users to write Amazon reviews?
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not everyone who buys a copy even bothers to read the review. If it's a book that the customer already knows they want (which is probably often the case with the Harry Potter books), why read the review? Just buy the book. And I know that I for one usually don't upvote a review, even if I did find it helpful. I don't mean to be intentionally rude, I just somehow haven't gotten in the habit of doing that. So the numbe…
> Since it's so easy to add a nice review system to an online store today, that feature alone won't be enough anymore. It's not the feature. I'm convinced it is is the sheer volume. Much like Arn from MacRumors says to monetize a website - first you need traffic. Traffic then monetization. Not monetization then traffic. Target has the exact same software Amazon.com has - as the result of a 2000-era licensing agreemen…
nitpick: "then" not "than" as in "Traffic then monetization". I don't mind it, but it is better to correct it as it is quite jarring to many people
Re: Ask HN: What motivates users to write Amazon reviews?
#33I suspect that most reviews are pissed off customers that are simply looking for an emotional outlet. I am actually amazed that so many products on Amazon have a high rating. Amazon could probably increase reviews 10 fold by creating an incentive program (e.g., coupon codes for reviewing products). Or, though it's a little spammy, I wouldn't be opposed to receiving a Netflix/Ebay style email a few weeks after I order…
Wait -- what? You don't get those emails?
I'm a heavy user of Amazon in the UK (Prime membership and all), and I get regular emails asking me to review products I've previously purchased.
..I've never written a review, though.
Re: Ask HN: What motivates users to write Amazon reviews?
#34I suspect that most reviews are pissed off customers that are simply looking for an emotional outlet. I am actually amazed that so many products on Amazon have a high rating. Amazon could probably increase reviews 10 fold by creating an incentive program (e.g., coupon codes for reviewing products). Or, though it's a little spammy, I wouldn't be opposed to receiving a Netflix/Ebay style email a few weeks after I order…
I think incenting people to review products defeats the whole point of what Amazon has to offer--genuine opinions about products from actual users. As mentioned above, no other e-commerce site has volume of reviews that Amazon has and few look poised to overtake them. Epinions took the incentive route and I think the difference in value is pretty apparent. Once you start compensating users for submitting "something",…
Yeah - but putting an incentive behind the process would remove the obvious self-selection biases. Right now, there are two reasons that people would post a review:
1) They had an exceptional experience with the product and feel the need to react to that. 2) They are the type of person that likes to tell the world about their experiences.
Unfortunately, both of those are a very small subset of total purchases and, most likely, highly overlapping. Which means you won't get the proportionally accurate number of reviews in the middle range. And you won't get reviews from Luddites or online recluses.
If you put an incentive behind the review system, perhaps you'd have people gaming the system, but at least you'd have a better shot at hitting a wider demographic of product reviewers.
You are probably right though. Amazon, like Google, is very, very good at analyzing piles of data to make market decisions. They may well have already piloted review incentives. Regardless, I suspect they've already got numbers that back up their current process.
Re: Ask HN: What motivates users to write Amazon reviews?
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Since it's so easy to add a nice review system to an online store today, that feature alone won't be enough anymore. It's not the feature. I'm convinced it is is the sheer volume. Much like Arn from MacRumors says to monetize a website - first you need traffic. Traffic then monetization. Not monetization then traffic. Target has the exact same software Amazon.com has - as the result of a 2000-era licensing agreemen…
nitpick: "then" not "than" as in "Traffic then monetization". I don't mind it, but it is better to correct it as it is quite jarring to many people
Fixed it. Thanks.
Here's the article I was paraphrasing:
"The secret to success on the internet can be boiled down to one simple accomplishment: building traffic.
That’s it. If you have a site that attracts a lot of visitors, you will be able to make money. On the internet, traffic equals power, which subsequently equals money."
-Arn, MacRumors.com
Re: Ask HN: What motivates users to write Amazon reviews?
#36Amazon and Newegg both email me after I make a purchase requesting that I review the product. They do this a little after the product is delivered--to give me a chance to use it.
I almost always respond to these requests, because I find the reviews helpful in my buying process and that motivates me to contribute back.
Re: Ask HN: What motivates users to write Amazon reviews?
#37> I'm wondering how so many reviews get written on a site like Amazon I'm sorry to burst your bubble. The well-respected consultancy User Interface Engineering has come up with the magic number of 1 review for every 1,300 purchases. "While only one in 1,300 purchasers of the product writes a review, the number who indicate a review was helpful is even fewer. For the Harry Potter volume, which is Amazon's best selling…
Not everyone who buys a copy even bothers to read the review. If it's a book that the customer already knows they want (which is probably often the case with the Harry Potter books), why read the review? Just buy the book. And I know that I for one usually don't upvote a review, even if I did find it helpful. I don't mean to be intentionally rude, I just somehow haven't gotten in the habit of doing that. So the numbe…
It's even worse than that. It's not the Harry Potter books (plural) they were talking about--it was just one particular Harry Potter book, book 7, which was the last book in the series. How many people are going to read 6 books in a series, and then need a review to decide if they want to read the 7th?
About the only reason I can think of one might check reviews before buying is to see if there are any goofs, like chapters printed out of order or things like that, that might make you want to delay purchase until the second printing.
The Amazon review system is kind of annoying. There are three kinds of things I've seen people cover in reviews: content, presentation of content, and purchasing issues. For instance, I did a short review of a math book. The content was excellent. However, the conversion to ebook for the Kindle was unusable. Various mathematical symbols were not recognized during the OCR and were replaced with blank space.
Amazon provides no way for me the rate the content at 5 stars and the presentation at 1 star for the Kindle edition. (And it provides no way to review just the Kindle edition. The reviews for all the editions are collected together).
Re: Ask HN: What motivates users to write Amazon reviews?
#38Reasons people will post reviews of a product on Amazon:
1) That's where they bought it -- sometimes when I buy something at Amazon I get an email from them asking me to review it
2) Sharing one's opinion is its own reward
3) Lots of people visit Amazon, so your opinion is going to be meaningful. What's more, your review will appear on the page for the product itself.
4) If you use Amazon a lot, you look at the reviews before buying. This means you are aware that they exist -- you trust them, maybe. Having the chance to add to a corpus of reviews you use and respect is a powerful incentive.
I'm not sure a plain-vanilla reviews site will be able to compete successfully with Amazon reviews. Maybe find some niche, like IMDB (movies) or Harmony Central (musical instruments) or KVR Audio (music software).
Re: Ask HN: What motivates users to write Amazon reviews?
#39Reasons people will post reviews of a product on Amazon: 1) That's where they bought it -- sometimes when I buy something at Amazon I get an email from them asking me to review it 2) Sharing one's opinion is its own reward 3) Lots of people visit Amazon, so your opinion is going to be meaningful. What's more, your review will appear on the page for the product itself. 4) If you use Amazon a lot, you look at the revie…
I just want to clear this up: I'm not developing a competitor to Amazon - I already have a niche for the reviews, but without the reviews the site loses much of its value.
Re: Ask HN: What motivates users to write Amazon reviews?
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think incenting people to review products defeats the whole point of what Amazon has to offer--genuine opinions about products from actual users. As mentioned above, no other e-commerce site has volume of reviews that Amazon has and few look poised to overtake them. Epinions took the incentive route and I think the difference in value is pretty apparent. Once you start compensating users for submitting "something",…
Yeah - but putting an incentive behind the process would remove the obvious self-selection biases. Right now, there are two reasons that people would post a review: 1) They had an exceptional experience with the product and feel the need to react to that. 2) They are the type of person that likes to tell the world about their experiences. Unfortunately, both of those are a very small subset of total purchases and, mo…
I think the incentive compounds the self-selection bias. For someone who is an expert in say audio equipment, a small monetary reward isn't going to encourage him/her to post a review (assuming they have a decent amount of disposable income). However, for those who could greatly benefit from that incentive, they'll post reviews like there's no tomorrow.
Another great example of how Amazon has succeeded with user generated content is Listmania--genuinely helpful product lists, all provided for free. I don't completely understand the psychology of why these are created, but I value the content greatly because I know that contributors are not compensated for their suggestions.